


help me leave these lonely thoughts behind

by theriveroflight



Category: RWBY
Genre: Animal Traits, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Horror, F/F, Gap Filler, Hair Brushing, Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Volume 6 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29889156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: They settle down for a bit, and relax.(There are looming threats, but relaxation nonetheless.)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	help me leave these lonely thoughts behind

**Author's Note:**

> Needed to sit down and write some fluff, so I continued this. And then I remembered where in the timeline I set this.
> 
> CW: mentions of Adam, implied Apathy (this fic is set on the farm)
> 
> Title from "Ease My Mind" by Ben Platt.

"Yang," Blake asks while they're at the farm, "can you brush my hair for me?"

"Brush...your hair?"

"My ears shed sometimes." They tilt down slightly, indicating her embarrassment. "The fur gets stuck in my hair. It isn't very comfortable."

"Oh." Yang grabs her hairbrush. "Sure."

It's Yang's…nice hairbrush. The one that she uses for herself, with her emblem on it - not the one that she lends to Ruby sometimes. Ruby tends to lose hairbrushes as easily as she loses anything that isn't attached to her body or Crescent Rose.

It kind of makes sense why she would be. They have similar-ish hair, in length and style. Blake shouldn't overthink it.

(She’s had a lot of reasons to overthink, as of late, but the last time she overthought in relation to affections didn’t go well.)

"Here, sit next to me." Yang pats the bed. "I can't brush your hair from over there," she teases.

"Yeah." Blake goes over to her. Yang takes a bundle of hair, starting at the top and running the brush through to the bottom.

"Anything I should be careful of when brushing around the ears?" Yang sounds almost impossibly soft.

"Um." Blake mentally chastises herself, what kind of response is that? But she's kind of short-circuiting a bit. "I'll tell you if you're hurting me."

Yang makes a sound of agreement, and keeps brushing. Yang's gentle with her hair, in a way that she never is to herself. It feels good.

"Jeez, Blake, how often do you do this?" Yang asks. "My brush is already  _ full  _ of your hair." Blake instinctively goes to run her fingers through her hair, but Yang stops her. "I've been making progress in your bird’s nest of a hairstyle, no need to mess it up.”

Blake smiles at the joke and puts her hand down. “I don’t like having my wrist grabbed.”

Boundaries. Important to set. Right.

“Oh, sorry about that.” She can’t see Yang’s reaction, but Yang doesn’t  _ sound  _ angry at the very least.

Blake’s trying. Being able to get one up on Adam certainly helped, but it’s…she still has difficulty sometimes. She was always afraid to set her boundaries, because if they weren’t established, then Adam couldn’t be blamed for violating them, could he?

The hairbrushing goes on, and Blake can feel herself relax into the gentle strokes of the brush in her hair, Yang working out the snarls with tender care.

“Mmm.”

“Feels good?” Yang asks. It’s not teasing, it’s genuine curiosity.

“It does. Thank you.”

“I’m going to empty the brush now, there’s a lot of loose hair that got stuck in it.”

“Okay. Is it done?”

“It is,” Yang answers, and Blake thinks that she’ll miss the touch, the way it felt to be taken care of, if only for a fleeting moment.

She’s always  _ needed  _ to be self-sufficient. She can barely remember a time without that. Because she was travelling with the White Fang as long as she can remember, and she  _ knows  _ that her parents would have taken care of her before she was old enough to go anywhere, but she doesn’t exactly remember that. She was too young.

She felt taken care of for the first time in Beacon Academy, with team RWBY -- knowing they were at her back, knowing she was protected.

And then she fled into the arms of her parents, trying to get a semblance of that care.

She’s tired.

* * *

Blake has difficulty waking up the next morning, but she still manages to get up, padding out to just touch up brushing her hair, and  _ wow  _ it’s easier than it has been in a while. Whatever Yang did must have really worked.

Yang’s not awake yet. That isn’t cause for concern  _ quite  _ yet, because Blake knows that Yang likes to sleep in, but considering what exactly happened to that dead couple she doesn’t want to take too many chances.

So Blake wakes Yang up, and Yang gets up with an easy yawn after Blake reminds Yang of exactly what happened.

Mentioning dead bodies is one way to get someone to wake up.

“Do you mind if I…return the favor?” Blake asks.

“We don’t have much time,” Yang answers.

“I know,” Blake answers. It’s only a matter of time -- once the trailer is fixed, they’ll be back on the road, without any real opportunities to rest.

So she grabs the hairbrush, and starts brushing Yang’s hair. She doesn’t know how Yang gets her hair styled that well; Blake could never pull that off. And Blake realises quickly why Yang’s hairbrush is so heavy duty -- Yang’s hair is curly, probably very difficult to tame.

But Blake is willing to try. She slowly works her way through Yang’s hair, slowly working through it all. The hair is thicker than it looks, but Blake is undaunted. If she could, she would spend the rest of her life here, just brushing Yang’s hair.

(And, okay, dangerous mindset considering their location, but Blake doesn’t want to dwell on that too much.)

The snarls come occasionally. “Ouch,” Yang says once.

“I-I’m sorry,” Blake says, going to back away.

“Don’t worry about it. It happens.” Yang shrugs, and sounds  _ genuinely  _ nonchalant.

Blake relaxes, finding that it’s a little easier than it would usually be after something like this.

There’s something wrong, but she’s trying  _ very hard  _ not to focus on that underlying sensation.

And then Blake reaches the end.

“So, are we going to join the others and have a breakfast of beans?” Yang asks, cracking a smile.

Blake laughs. She doesn’t want to get up, in this moment. But they have to get up and join the others for some breakfast.

She wishes she could just…save this moment. Pause right here, in their little bubble of comfort.

But that won’t happen. Not anytime soon. Not in a way that Blake would feel  _ good  _ about.

“I guess we should,” Blake answers, and slowly rises to her feet. It takes more effort than she’s used to, so she holds a hand out to Yang, and even though Blake suspects Yang doesn’t need it Yang takes it anyway.

They walk out of the room to join the others.

Back to the real world.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on my writing Tumblr @beunforgotten!


End file.
